Known 'card cheat' admits using invisible ink to mark cards at Mohegan Sun

A man flagged by casino security officials as a “known card cheat” pleaded guilty Wednesday in New London Superior Court to using invisible ink to mark cards at Mohegan Sun on Sept. 15, 2013.

Bruce Koloshi, 55, of Summit, N.J., who is also known as Jeffrey William Elliot, pleaded guilty to attempted cheating at gambling and received a 10-month prison sentence followed by three years conditional discharge. As a condition of the plea bargain, Koloshi is banned from Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods Resort casinos.

“You are not welcome at any casinos in Connecticut,” Judge Hillary B. Strackbein told Koloshi after imposing the sentence.

Koloshi has cheating convictions in Nevada, Iowa and Illinois and is facing charges in Baton Rouge, La. He is expected to be released soon from the Corrigan-Radgowski Correctional Center, having already served his time while the case was pending. At that point, he will be turned over to Louisiana authorities.

“He would like to get to Baton Rouge to resolve (his charges) as soon as possible,” said his attorney, Martin Minnella.

The $930 in gaming chips that he was carrying when he was taken into custody at a poker table will be returned to Mohegan Sun. Minnella said he would turn over the $2,943 in cash that Koloshi was carrying to the attorney handling his Louisiana case.

Koloshi was taken into custody at a Mississippi Stud Poker table after a surveillance operator notified state police he looked like the man depicted as a “known card cheat” on a bulletin from the Delaware Division of Gaming Enforcement. The surveillance operator told the state police that video of his play depicted him “clearly marking the cards.” The ink he was using could only be seen when the video was viewed in black and white. Cheaters mark cards so they can gain an advantage by placing higher bets when they know which card will be played.

The police removed from Koloshi’s jacket pocket a small piece of fabric with ink on it attached to a small piece of a dollar bill. Koloshi, who was wearing both eyeglasses and contact lenses, admitted the contacts “were designed to see things that you normally wouldn’t be able to see.”